Weekend Reads: Rapunzel’s not Ready for Marriage, Being an “OK” Parent, and The Best Rhyming Books

Happy Weekend Readers! It’s March 26th, or Purple Day, an international grassroots effort to raise awareness about epilepsy. Which I was not aware of…

The script for a Disney Princess is pretty settled. Find Prince Charming or his genre appropriate equivalent, get rescued by or have an adventure with said Prince, get Married and live Happily Ever After (TM). But in the sequel to the wonderful Tangled from 2010, Tangled Ever After Rapunzel flips that script, turning down the proposal of her roguish beau Eugene because she’s not ready to settle down. And the best part? Everybody understands and respects her decision!

Now, as I followed Teacher X, I wondered why she needed to speak to me just minutes before my next talk. So I asked what was up.
“It’s about STAR-CROSSED,” she admitted. “We’re concerned that some of the kids are too young for the content.”

The content? I was dumbstruck. STAR-CROSSED is a middle grade novel about an eighth grade production of Romeo & Juliet in which the girl playing Romeo realizes she has a crush on the girl playing Juliet. Even as it tracks the plot of Shakespeare’s play, it’s a gentle, wholesome comedy– wholesome enough for Scholastic to have licensed it for book clubs and fairs. Reviews from School Library Journal and Kirkus have praised its age-appropriateness and “sweetness.” Amanda MacGregor blogged on SLJ: “The positive, accepting, supportive tone of the story makes this book a must-have for every middle school library.” And I’m proud to say that STAR-CROSSED has earned raves from some rockstar kidlit authors–Gail Carson Levine, Donna Gephart, Nora Raleigh Baskin, Ami Polonsky.

Not completely sure I understood what I was hearing, I asked Teacher X if she meant that only the next kids were “too young”–even though, like the classes earlier, they were sixth graders. I showed her the publisher’s age recommendation: 9-13. I also pointed out the endorsements from Gail Carson Levine, et al. That was when she admitted the real reason she wanted me to stop talking about the book: “a fear of parental backlash.”

Robert E. Kelly and his wife, Kim Jung-A have broken their silence after their adorable precocious kiddos crashed their Dads Skype interview.

Kelly said assumptions that Kim was a nanny, and not the children’s mother, made them “pretty uncomfortable.” But they also said they appreciated why most people found the video so funny.

“We watched it multiple times, too, and our families have watched it as well. Everybody we know seems to think it’s pretty hysterical,” Kelly told Menendez. “It was sort of catching a regular family off-guard and stuff. It’s funny.”

“We laughed a lot,” his wife added.

And, in an incredible confirmation of what many people had suspected, the Journal reported that Kim had not realized that the children had wandered into their father’s home office — until she saw them on the TV screen.

Lou Doench

Lou Doench is a 48 year old father of three. Twelve years ago he married the coolest woman in the world and gave up the lucrative career of being a photography student to become a stay at home husband and Dad, or SAHD. An atheist geek, or a geeky atheist if you prefer, Lou likes reading, photography, video gaming, disc golf, baseball and Dr. Who. He has been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 1976. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also an excellent home cook, not that his children would know because they only eat Mac & Cheese. Follow Lou on Twitter @blotzphoto or check out his photography at www.flickr.com/photos/blotz/